Customer Feedback Questionaires

[AMGBob]

Are they that very important to MB salespersons?

I bought my C63 estate in January and I've been plagued by emails and more recently phone calls about this- 3 calls last week.

He says he'll lose his job unless I give him full marks!

Dilemma is that he wasn't a very good salesman and if hadn't been for me wanting that particular car I'd have walked. I didn't want to leave poor feedback so decided not to fill in at all.

I can't believe it's that vital is it??!!

 

[def90cars]

I feel like they pressurise you into a good score whether they were good or bad.
They say they want to know if its less than 10/10 but then it feels like the onus is on you to explain why. So often easier just to say everything is perfect to avoid the hassle.
Not unique to MB but I guess I have bought there more recently.

 

[PXW]

Are they that very important to MB salespersons?

I bought my C63 estate in January and I've been plagued by emails and more recently phone calls about this- 3 calls last week.

He says he'll lose his job unless I give him full marks!

Dilemma is that he wasn't a very good salesman and if hadn't been for me wanting that particular car I'd have walked. I didn't want to leave poor feedback so decided not to fill in at all.

I can't believe it's that vital is it??!!

He's not going to lose his job over one down marked feedback form. So either he is telling the truth, which implies he has had a significant amount of poor reviews, and yours would just be part of a much bigger picture, or he's a manipulative liar.

Either way feel free to ignore him or stick the boot in as you wish! But in this kind of situation I always have my company's mantra ringing in my ears: feedback is a gift. Just gives me the responsibility to frame it a bit like Mrs PXW does with her school kids... Www (what went well) and ebi (even better if).

 

[MCFastybloke]

Just tell the truth,fill the form in and forget about it.
OR next time he rings tell him why you have refrained and to "do one"

 

[C60three]

Are they that very important to MB salespersons?

I bought my C63 estate in January and I've been plagued by emails and more recently phone calls about this- 3 calls last week.

He says he'll lose his job unless I give him full marks!

Dilemma is that he wasn't a very good salesman and if hadn't been for me wanting that particular car I'd have walked. I didn't want to leave poor feedback so decided not to fill in at all.

I can't believe it's that vital is it??!!

Hi, I can't remember the exact figures. My salesman told me he only gets (around) £25-£50 for making the sale. Then if I gave him a poor score, this results in money coming off his basic (may be couple of hundred- much more than he gets for the sale). They get additional benefits and incentives for hitting targets.

The guy I dealt with was new to the job. When he told me the above info' I asked 'I AM getting a full tank of fuel aren't I? (rather than £50 worth). His face went white!! ;-)

 

[asinrutee]

I can't remember the exact figures. My salesman told me he only gets (around) £25-£50 for making the sale. Then if I gave him a poor score, this results in money coming off his basic (may be couple of hundred- much more than he gets for the sale). They get additional benefits and incentives for hitting targets./QUOTE]

Same here, it's happened twice,I don't think figures were mentioned, but definitely said it would cost him money if the score wasn't 10 and they both phoned to check what I had done

 

[brucemillar]

It is an appalling state of affairs when sales people for Mercedes are reduced to acting no better than street beggars. Mercedes and their dealership network need to realise that we moved away from the Dickensian Workhouse some time back.

Calling people up and emotionally blackmailing them for good feedback? No, No, No. Unacceptable.

1) Mercedes should pay their people the salary for the job.
2) Their people should have the confidence in their actions that they would not need to solicit or beg for feedback.

If you don't like this post then please say you actually love it or I get fired, I lose my home, my wife screws the neighbour who takes my kids, I turn to drugs and end up burgling your house to feed my habbit.

No, No, No.

 

[Rory]

There's a story on here (or maybe the other forum) from someone who had an average / OK purchase experience of an E Class, so he put average / OK scores.

Next thing the dealer general manager calls him and says that's the worst score they've ever received and asks why he shouldn't fire the salesman.


The system is ridiculous, but it expects you to mark 10 or 'absolutely excellent" etc for a normal experience. If you have a specific problem then you mark down from there.

I scored my local dealer 9 out 10 after a recent servicing visit and they rang me and asked why I hadn't given them 10, even though we'd discussed them doing me no favours on pricing at some length. I really wanted to score them lower and if 9 is no good then I might as well have.

 

[paneraiseeker]

Just tell him the truth, and maybe he will up his game for his next customer.

 

[Paddcomp]

Other businesses are the same where customer feedback is solicited. We went on a cruise a few years ago, near the end if the week the whole ships comms was based on telling you that you should give an excellent rating.
Sales need restructuring away from bonuses and additional sales and more salary based. Look at banks and what its done to them.

 

[C60three]

I agree with some of the comments above.
However, I think sales needs a commission/bonus scheme to reward and encourage.
If the salesmen are guilt tripping us all into giving them 10/10 then it is not worth doing a scoring system at all!
They should be advised not to solicit good feedback and they shouldn't be advising customers how the scheme works.

 

[AMGBob]

I can only assume he isn't the sharpest tool in the box.
I found him so infuriating during the buying process I complained to his manager.
For him to think I'm going to score him 10/10 is laughable.
Ironically I'm trying to be kind by just not filling review in!

 

[Charles Morgan]

A system based on penalising those who don't score the top mark is inevitably going to lead to misalignment of incentives. I doubt this has been devised for the customers benefit - it reeks of league table (JD Power anyone?) rigging.

 

[Mr E]

Quite a few companies in the industry run their appraisal process on an up-or-out process. Customer feedback is a large part of the scoring process.

It does skew the process when the sales guys are soliciting directly for feedback - I always respond that I don't give feedback in these circumstances and will happy send the form back with my comments to that effect.

 

[Satch]

All Customer Surveys become worse than useless when this sort of thing happens: if fact they are extremely dangerous

Skewed, tainted results that leave the organisation in the dark as to what is actually going on and what customers really think.

It is an intellectually bankrupt approach, attempting to use dumb metrics to measure "success" or service levels so all that happens is that behaviours change not to providing excellent customer service but just getting those 10/10 scores.

Then one day it all goes belly up, terrible thing flop into the open, nothing is working well yet all the dashboards, KPI's etc are glowing bright green. And the senior management cry "How can this be??"

Well. just go ask the NHS.

 

[Giantvanman]

Our salesman (for two vehicles) hoped that we would give good feedback. It was only when I asked if the feedback system excluded the top and bottom marks (as some do) that he went pale and admitted anything other than 10/10 would result in consequences for him.
As it happens, he thoroughly merited full marks for both transactions but what a sad state of affairs. On the one hand it gives the customer power but on the other it leaves the salesman at the mercy of the mean spirited (if you don't give me what I want, however unrealistic, I'll mark you down) and the never happy brigade.

 

[Dieselman]

Our salesman (for two vehicles) hoped that we would give good feedback. It was only when I asked if the feedback system excluded the top and bottom marks (as some do) that he went pale and admitted anything other than 10/10 would result in consequences for him.
As it happens, he thoroughly merited full marks for both transactions but what a sad state of affairs. On the one hand it gives the customer power but on the other it leaves the salesman at the mercy of the mean spirited (if you don't give me what I want, however unrealistic, I'll mark you down) and the never happy brigade.

The problem with surveys and appraisal systems is that the norm should be the middle score and genuine adjustments can then be made above and below the middle score.
As above, the norm is expected to be the top score, which is unrealistic and leaves no room for improvement.

 

[Giantvanman]

The problem with surveys and appraisal systems is that the norm should be the middle score and genuine adjustments can then be made above and below the middle score.
As above, the norm is expected to be the top score, which is unrealistic and leaves no room for improvement.

Good point.

 

[Rory]

I've often wondered if customers could use these surveys to their advantage?

I mean, to mark the deal as 10 out of 10 it would have to absolutely take my breath away. Will they include mats, full tank of fuel, not hassle me over finance, GAP, paint protection etc.

As above, I want to leave these people thinking they could always do better.

 

[johnsco]

All Customer Surveys become worse than useless when this sort of thing happens: if fact they are extremely dangerous

Skewed, tainted results that leave the organisation in the dark as to what is actually going on and what customers really think.

It is an intellectually bankrupt approach, attempting to use dumb metrics to measure "success" or service levels so all that happens is that behaviours change not to providing excellent customer service but just getting those 10/10 scores.

Then one day it all goes belly up, terrible thing flop into the open, nothing is working well yet all the dashboards, KPI's etc are glowing bright green. And the senior management cry "How can this be??"

Well. just go ask the NHS.

This post sums up very-nicely what a load of horse-sh1t these appraisal systems are.
Also - What a dysfunctional society we have become.

The day I get my job badly-wrong ... You'll all hear about it